Thursday, October 27, 2016

By Amraiz Khan, in The Nation, October 25, 2016, LAHORE - One way or the other, almost every visitor gets robbed at Data Darbar - the shrine of famous Sufi saint Hazrat Ali Bin Usman Al-Hajveri [in Lahore].
Tens of thousands of devotees from across the country visit the Lahore’s historic shrine daily.
But they are virtually robbed by the food sellers, contractors, and mafias who in fact enjoy the administrative control of the shrine.

In addition to fleecers and fraudsters, the populous Data Darbar locality is among the worst crime-hit areas of the provincial metropolis.
Crimes like pick-pocketing, child abuse, and robberies are quite common around the holy site.
Runaway children from all across the province prefer staying at the shrine because of free food and petty jobs.

Devotees from across the country visiting the shrine take sigh of relief when they pay homage to their spiritual leader buried here.
About 40,000 to 50,000 pilgrims daily visit the shrine of Hazrat Ali Hajveri widely known as Data Ganj Bakhsh, according to Data Darbar manager Mr Jahangir.

Due to poor administration of Auqaf department which is also custodian of the shrine, security, janitorial and administrative issues are not up to the mark.
When a devotee enters in the Darbar limits, he has to face swindlers, pickpockets and kidnappers roaming around the premises in guise of beggars, food sellers, addicts, and flower sellers.

Food (Lungar) sellers not only sell substandard food but also in lesser quantity than declared.
A devotee, Muhammad Salman said, “I bought a Daigh of rice of 10 kg to distribute among the poor but when I checked, there was hardly 5 kg food in ‘Daigh’.
The irony is that one cannot countercheck the weight at the Data Darbar.
”
Another regular visitor told The Nation that some food sellers only receive money from the rich devotees to distribute food among the people but after distributing minor chunk of the food, they put the food again at their counter for sale.

Similarly, many devotees coming from far flung are deprived of their money through pickpocketing when they enter in the rushy area of the shrine.
Police say 106 cases of pickpocketing have been registered with Police Station Data Darbar since the start of this year; however, there was not even a single case of kidnapping of any male or female children.
“Rather we rescued children and sent them to Child Protection Bureau around the Darbar premises,” the area SHO said, further claiming that number of swindling and deception cases have also touched zero.

The station house officer added since CCTV cameras have been installed everywhere in Darbar premises, swindlers have shifted to other areas of the city like Lorry Adda and Railway station.

Another grave concern of Data Sahib devotees is overcharging by the contractors of Auqaf for shoes-keeping.
The department has fixed Rs5 for each pair of shoes when a devotee goes inside the Darbar he has to put his shoes off and hand them over to the Darbar staff.
But in ‘normal’ practice, the contractor charges Rs100 to 150 per pair of shoes keeping in view the dressing and financial position of the devotee.
Jabbar Ahmad, a resident of Bahawalnagar, who was there with his family, complained to the Darbar manager that the shoes-keeping staff had charged Rs100 from his wife and also misbehaved with her.
The manager called the shoe-keeping staff and enquired about the issue.
The matter was then ‘settled’ at the official rate.
To a question about punishment for overcharging by shoes contractor, the manager said: “We have displayed a board near the shoes counters inscribed with warning not to pay excess charges than Rs5.
”
“We are also making announcements in this regard repeatedly but even then they don’t spare the people visiting the holy shrine,” the manager told The Nation.
He added that Auqaf department was thinking on these lines to finish the contract system, and shoe-keeping service will be free of cost in future.
However, the administration has no clear mechanism to check the overcharging, let alone taking any action against the violators.
According to the area police, only two cases of overcharging were registered against the shoe-keeping staff during past ten months.

Almost 40,000 to 50,000 people visit Data Darbar daily, and on Thursday and Friday more rush is witnessed.
People from every school of thought like Sunni, Brailvi, Shia, Ahle Hadees and Ddeobandi, visit the shrine.
During Raiwind congregation, rush increase at Data Darbar.
Similarly, Shia devotees visit Darbar during Muharram when they visit Bibi Pak Daman shrine, and Karbala Gamay Shah.

By Ishrat Butt, Poonch (Mandi), Published in Greater Kashmir, Publishing Date: Oct 26 2016 1:01AM. Locals, while talking to Greater Kashmir, said that this shrine is seven hundred years old and is named after a great Sufi saint, who reached this area from Kashmir.

A shrine located at Guntar village of Saujiyan, only eight kilometres from Mandi tehsil headquarter, here in Pir Panchal region is craving for government attention. The shrine of Peer Sayeed Sadiq Shah is located very close to Line of Control in Saujiyan.

Locals while talking to Greater Kashmir said that this shrine is seven hundred years old and is named after a great Sufi saint, who reached this area from Kashmir.
They informed that the Minar [i.e., minaret] of this shrine was constructed 80 years ago and is repaired after every couple of years by locals on their own.

“So far government has not even bothered to pay attention to this shrine which is a centre of religious values of the people of the area,” he added.
Locals said that a road to this shrine was constructed by them a few months ago.

We spent Rs eight lakhs but Rural Development Department is still to clear the payment.
They also informed that a temporary bathroom was constructed by locals of the area on their own.
"We appeal authorities to show some concern towards this shrine and to ensure that basic facilities remain available to devotees visiting here," locals said.

Women to Get Access to Inner Sanctum of Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai IANS Updated Oct 24, 2016, NEW DELHI – Women devotees will have access up to the sanctum sanctorum of Sufi saint Haji Ali in Mumbai, the Haji Ali Dargah Trust Oct. 24 informed the Supreme Court.
The trust told the apex court that it is going to create a separate way to facilitate women devotees' access to the Dargah.
As senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam appearing for the Haji Ali Dargah Trust sought two weeks' time to create the way, the bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice L. Nageswara Rao, describing the development as positive, said: "You can have four weeks' time if you are going to strictly comply with the (Bombay) High Court order."

Subramaniam took the court through the map of the Dargah to tell it that the trust has decided to relocate the treasury boxes in which the offerings by the devotees are kept.
He also told the court that in the past, women were allowed access to the sanctum sanctorum of the Dargah, but for some logistical problems, the restrictions were imposed.

"The Trust in 2012 prohibited women from entering the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine."
The Haji Ali Dargah Trust had approached the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court order that directed the trust to allow women devotees full access to the sanctum sanctorum of the Dargah.

The Bombay High Court had on Aug. 26 permitted the entry of women right up to the restricted grave area of the famous Saint.
However, the Bombay High Court, while ruling that women can go up to the sanctum sanctorum of the Dargah, had put the operation of its verdict on hold, giving time to the Haji Ali Trust – managing the shrine affairs – to approach the Supreme Court.

The High Court verdict had come on a public interest litigation filed by Noorjehan Niaz, Zakia Soman and others.
This shrine of the Sufi Saint in Mumbai was built in 1431.

Salam 'alaykum, Dear Friends,
It is time to get Sufi News up and running again. For a while we were
at another site, www.sufinews.org, but
I am more comfortable with this site. So I will start it up here again.
wa-s-salam,
'Abd al-Haqq

By Amraiz Khan, in The Nation, October 25, 2016, LAHORE - One way or the other, almost every visitor gets robbed at Data Darbar - the shrine of famous Sufi saint Hazrat Ali Bin Usman Al-Hajveri [in Lahore].
Tens of thousands of devotees from across the country visit the Lahore’s historic shrine daily.
But they are virtually robbed by the food sellers, contractors, and mafias who in fact enjoy the administrative control of the shrine.

In addition to fleecers and fraudsters, the populous Data Darbar locality is among the worst crime-hit areas of the provincial metropolis.
Crimes like pick-pocketing, child abuse, and robberies are quite common around the holy site.
Runaway children from all across the province prefer staying at the shrine because of free food and petty jobs.

Devotees from across the country visiting the shrine take sigh of relief when they pay homage to their spiritual leader buried here.
About 40,000 to 50,000 pilgrims daily visit the shrine of Hazrat Ali Hajveri widely known as Data Ganj Bakhsh, according to Data Darbar manager Mr Jahangir.

Due to poor administration of Auqaf department which is also custodian of the shrine, security, janitorial and administrative issues are not up to the mark.
When a devotee enters in the Darbar limits, he has to face swindlers, pickpockets and kidnappers roaming around the premises in guise of beggars, food sellers, addicts, and flower sellers.

Food (Lungar) sellers not only sell substandard food but also in lesser quantity than declared.
A devotee, Muhammad Salman said, “I bought a Daigh of rice of 10 kg to distribute among the poor but when I checked, there was hardly 5 kg food in ‘Daigh’.
The irony is that one cannot countercheck the weight at the Data Darbar.
”
Another regular visitor told The Nation that some food sellers only receive money from the rich devotees to distribute food among the people but after distributing minor chunk of the food, they put the food again at their counter for sale.

Similarly, many devotees coming from far flung are deprived of their money through pickpocketing when they enter in the rushy area of the shrine.
Police say 106 cases of pickpocketing have been registered with Police Station Data Darbar since the start of this year; however, there was not even a single case of kidnapping of any male or female children.
“Rather we rescued children and sent them to Child Protection Bureau around the Darbar premises,” the area SHO said, further claiming that number of swindling and deception cases have also touched zero.

The station house officer added since CCTV cameras have been installed everywhere in Darbar premises, swindlers have shifted to other areas of the city like Lorry Adda and Railway station.

Another grave concern of Data Sahib devotees is overcharging by the contractors of Auqaf for shoes-keeping.
The department has fixed Rs5 for each pair of shoes when a devotee goes inside the Darbar he has to put his shoes off and hand them over to the Darbar staff.
But in ‘normal’ practice, the contractor charges Rs100 to 150 per pair of shoes keeping in view the dressing and financial position of the devotee.
Jabbar Ahmad, a resident of Bahawalnagar, who was there with his family, complained to the Darbar manager that the shoes-keeping staff had charged Rs100 from his wife and also misbehaved with her.
The manager called the shoe-keeping staff and enquired about the issue.
The matter was then ‘settled’ at the official rate.
To a question about punishment for overcharging by shoes contractor, the manager said: “We have displayed a board near the shoes counters inscribed with warning not to pay excess charges than Rs5.
”
“We are also making announcements in this regard repeatedly but even then they don’t spare the people visiting the holy shrine,” the manager told The Nation.
He added that Auqaf department was thinking on these lines to finish the contract system, and shoe-keeping service will be free of cost in future.
However, the administration has no clear mechanism to check the overcharging, let alone taking any action against the violators.
According to the area police, only two cases of overcharging were registered against the shoe-keeping staff during past ten months.

Almost 40,000 to 50,000 people visit Data Darbar daily, and on Thursday and Friday more rush is witnessed.
People from every school of thought like Sunni, Brailvi, Shia, Ahle Hadees and Ddeobandi, visit the shrine.
During Raiwind congregation, rush increase at Data Darbar.
Similarly, Shia devotees visit Darbar during Muharram when they visit Bibi Pak Daman shrine, and Karbala Gamay Shah.

By Ishrat Butt, Poonch (Mandi), Published in Greater Kashmir, Publishing Date: Oct 26 2016 1:01AM. Locals, while talking to Greater Kashmir, said that this shrine is seven hundred years old and is named after a great Sufi saint, who reached this area from Kashmir.

A shrine located at Guntar village of Saujiyan, only eight kilometres from Mandi tehsil headquarter, here in Pir Panchal region is craving for government attention. The shrine of Peer Sayeed Sadiq Shah is located very close to Line of Control in Saujiyan.

Locals while talking to Greater Kashmir said that this shrine is seven hundred years old and is named after a great Sufi saint, who reached this area from Kashmir.
They informed that the Minar [i.e., minaret] of this shrine was constructed 80 years ago and is repaired after every couple of years by locals on their own.

“So far government has not even bothered to pay attention to this shrine which is a centre of religious values of the people of the area,” he added.
Locals said that a road to this shrine was constructed by them a few months ago.

We spent Rs eight lakhs but Rural Development Department is still to clear the payment.
They also informed that a temporary bathroom was constructed by locals of the area on their own.
"We appeal authorities to show some concern towards this shrine and to ensure that basic facilities remain available to devotees visiting here," locals said.

Women to Get Access to Inner Sanctum of Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai IANS Updated Oct 24, 2016, NEW DELHI – Women devotees will have access up to the sanctum sanctorum of Sufi saint Haji Ali in Mumbai, the Haji Ali Dargah Trust Oct. 24 informed the Supreme Court.
The trust told the apex court that it is going to create a separate way to facilitate women devotees' access to the Dargah.
As senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam appearing for the Haji Ali Dargah Trust sought two weeks' time to create the way, the bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice L. Nageswara Rao, describing the development as positive, said: "You can have four weeks' time if you are going to strictly comply with the (Bombay) High Court order."

Subramaniam took the court through the map of the Dargah to tell it that the trust has decided to relocate the treasury boxes in which the offerings by the devotees are kept.
He also told the court that in the past, women were allowed access to the sanctum sanctorum of the Dargah, but for some logistical problems, the restrictions were imposed.

"The Trust in 2012 prohibited women from entering the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine."
The Haji Ali Dargah Trust had approached the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court order that directed the trust to allow women devotees full access to the sanctum sanctorum of the Dargah.

The Bombay High Court had on Aug. 26 permitted the entry of women right up to the restricted grave area of the famous Saint.
However, the Bombay High Court, while ruling that women can go up to the sanctum sanctorum of the Dargah, had put the operation of its verdict on hold, giving time to the Haji Ali Trust – managing the shrine affairs – to approach the Supreme Court.

The High Court verdict had come on a public interest litigation filed by Noorjehan Niaz, Zakia Soman and others.
This shrine of the Sufi Saint in Mumbai was built in 1431.

Salam 'alaykum, Dear Friends,
It is time to get Sufi News up and running again. For a while we were
at another site, www.sufinews.org, but
I am more comfortable with this site. So I will start it up here again.
wa-s-salam,
'Abd al-Haqq

About Sufi News

Sufi News is a volunteer organization in the process of attempting to become financially viable. To this end, in part, we will depend upon reader financial support. So if you would like to see Sufi News continue, please consider making a one-time or regular donation.

Donate to Sufi News

To Readers and Authors:

Click on the title of each article in order to go to the original article. If you are the author of the article and do not want it republished here, please inform us and we will remove it. Click on the pictures to expand them.